September 9
Saints of the Day
Saint Peter Claver, 1581-1654
A Catalonian Jesuit who cared and baptized 300,000 slaves in
Cartagena, Colombia,
Slave of the Slaves,
Slave of the Blacks. Body incorrupt
Farmer's
son. Studied at the University of
Barcelona.
Jesuit
from age 20.
Priest.
Influenced by Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez to become a
missionary
in
America.
Ministered, physically and spiritually, to
slaves
when they arrived in Cartegena,
converting
a reported 300,000, and working for humane treatment on the plantations for 40
years.
Organized
charitable
societies among the
Spanish
in
America
similar to those organized in
Europe
by Saint
Vincent de Paul.
Peter said of the
slaves,
"We must speak to them with our hands by giving, before we try to speak to
them with our lips."
Forty-four years of unceasing dedication to
their spiritual and material betterment by Saint Peter. He watched for the
arrival of the slave ships, which brought from ten to twelve thousand souls each
year, and never failed to be the first to go aboard, accompanied by his
interpreters and carrying the provisions he had been able to beg. He greeted the
living, arranged for the burial of the dead and the transport of the sick to
hospitals. Having won their sympathy, he went to them regularly with his
interpreters and taught them, during several hours’ time, the elements of
doctrine, aided by pictures. Before he died, he had baptized 300,000. He put
around the necks of each newly baptized child of God, a medal which would
thereafter distinguish the Christians from the yet untaught.
Though this was his principal industry, he
also spent many days in the nearby lazaretto — a refuge for lepers — and
in the hospitals of the region.
One man insulted him for twenty-two years,
but at the end of that time fell on his knees and begged his pardon. The vision
of his charity is certainly reserved for heaven; his biographers scarcely find
words adequate to describe his heroic life. Pope Pius IX, who beatified Saint
Peter in 1851, commented that never had he read a life of a Saint which so moved
him.
Two years after his death at the age of
seventy-four, his body was found intact, despite the humidity of the
burial site and the live caustic covering it. Miracles proliferated there and
elsewhere by the invocation of his name. A large church was built in Carthagena
in his honor, and he became the second patron of his adopted land, Colombia.
- Born
1581
at Verdu, Catalonia,
Spain
Died
8 September
1654
at Cartegena,
Colombia
of natural causes.
Canonized
1888
by
Pope
Leo XIII
Images
Gallery of images of Saint Peter [3 images, 29 kb]
Additional Information
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintp10.htm
http://www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/09-09.htm
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1133
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Readings
To love God as He ought to be loved, we must be detached from all temporal
love. We must love nothing but Him, or if we love anything else, we must love
it only for His sake.
-Saint Peter Claver
Yesterday,
May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous blacks,
brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship. Carrying two
baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and I know not what else, we
hurried toward them. We had to force our way through the crowd until we
reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on the wet ground or
rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, someone had through
of building up a mound with a mixture of times and broken pieces of bricks.
This, then, was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that
reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to
protect them.
We laid aside our
cloaks, therefore, and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to
build a platform. In that way we covered a space to which we at last
transferred the sick, by forcing a passage through bands of slaves. Then we
divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an
interpreter, which I addressed the other group. There were two blacks, nearer
death than life, already cold, whose pulse could scarcely be detected. With
the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the
middle near the dying men. Into this fire we tossed aromatics. Then, using our
own
cloaks, for they had nothing of the sort, and to ask the owners for others
would have been a waste of words, we provided for them a smoke treatment, by
which they seemed to recover their warmth, and the breath of life. The joy in
their eyes as they looked at us was something to see.
This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our
actions. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here
to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless. Then we
sat, or rather knelt, beside them and bathed their faces and bodies with wine.
We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in
their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick.
After this we began an elementary instruction about
baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul.
When by their answers to our questions they showed they had sufficiently
understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the
one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the
rest. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we told them the
mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ
fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the
baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led
them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language.
Saints of
September 9:
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0909.htm
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